Hillary, huh? Presidential polls, pols, and piffle

February 02. 2014 4:54PMThe polls are out! The polls are out! And if you pay any more attention to them than you do to the odds on NEXT year’s Super Bowl, you may want to seek professional help.

We don’t mean the polls for elections that will happen later this year, although even these need to be taken with several grains of salt.

We mean the presidential polls. They are becoming as thick as fleas at the circus and are just about as useful. A lot have to do with name recognition and little else at this stage. But people who are paid for these polls and the companies or groups who are paying for them feel the need to promote them to the rafters and to opine on their supposed deep meanings.

We let most of this go out with the next day’s tide but we were surprised by a UNH pollster’s comment last week about his poll. It showed more than 80 percent of Democrats here favoring HIllary Clinton. His conclusion? Hillary doesn’t have to come to New Hampshire.

First, her stature is certainly more than name recognition. But we are skeptical of the conventional wisdom that anyone can be a given for a presidential nomination so far in advance. A lot of things can happen between now and then.

Second, it is wrong to say Madame Clinton need not come to New Hampshire. That kind of attitude could backfire and we think she and her team are smart enough to know it.